While hunting is not allowed within the park, it is a marvel to behold and a true treasure of America’s National Park Service. Presently occupying 3,472 square miles in northwest corner of Wyoming and slivers of land in Montana and Idaho, Yellowstone is home to the worlds largest collection of geysers and wildlife such as grizzly bears, bison, wolves, elk and many other species.
Yesterday marked Yellowstone’s 144th anniversary of being established as the first U.S. National Park. With this in mind, we have compiled 10 reasons why Yellowstone is one of the country’s greatest parks.
Yellowstone has the largest, free-roaming herd of bison in the world.
Yellowstone is home to one of the largest elk herds in the United States.
Yellowstone Lake is the largest lake at high elevation (over 7,000 feet [2134 m]) in North America.
Yellowstone National Park boasts more than 300 geysers, the most in the world.
Henry Teller, serving as Secretary of the Interior at the time, banned hunting in Yellowstone National Park in 1883.
The North Fork Fire, started from a discarded cigarette and burned more than 410,000 acres in 1988.
At peak summer levels, 3,500 employees work for Yellowstone National Park concessioners and about 800 work for the National Park Service.
Up until 1973, Fishing Bridge was a wildly popular fishing spot on the Yellowstone River above a cutthroat trout spawning area. Today the bridge is used as a fish observation point.
Fort Yellowstone was established at Mammoth Hot Springs when the U.S. Army protected Yellowstone between 1886 and 1918, prior to the establishment of the National Park Service.
As surprising as it may sound, more folks are injured by bison in Yellowstone each year than those that are harmed by bears. Park regulations state that visitors must remain 100 yards from any bear and 25 yards from bison or elk.
